Is the U.K. unable to recognise its own film talent?

[Hugh K. David]

From Pro-B's review of Metrodome's release of SHIFTY:

"I don’t know if this really is the case, but on this side of the Atlantic, as of late, it feels like there is something very special going on in the United Kingdom. During the last couple of years, I have seen some remarkably strong films – Jan Dunn’s Gypo, Paul Andrew Williams’ London to Birghton, Andrea Arnold’s Red Road, Shane Meadows’ This is England, Duane Hopkins’ Better Things, Anton Corbijn’s Control, Steve McQueen’s Hunger, etc – that I think point to a trend. Yet, I regularly talk to fellow colleagues who cover the local film scene there and they just don’t seem as excited about it as I am. So, I wonder – am I imagining things or the people that I talk to incapable of seeing the elephant in the room?"

What do others feel about this? Is Pro-B correct?

I'm interested in what people think, especially those living outside the U.K. It wouldn't be the first time we here didn't notice an entire movement building beneath our feet. However, given that Michael Winterbottom has been able to keep making films for fifteen years now, always able to give a return to his investors, it's interesting to realise he's not alone, that others have got careers going in his wake, and that in the absence of previous film-making cultures (theatre, TV, advertising, second-unit shooting for US films) interesting directors are still emerging.